Davison's Doodle

Paragraphs from SSCSJ

For the August 5 Lectionary Readings.

Psalm 51
In a lament, the person(s) praying would name what was wrong with the world, ask God to do specific things in order to fix the problem, and promise to sing God’s praises to others, once the situation had improved.  Sometimes a lament calls God to task for not acting like God, even questioning whether God cares about humanity or creation.  Other laments cry out to God because the psalmist is experiencing oppression at the hand of an enemy, and the request is that God bring justice to the situation (often asking that some very violent acts be visited upon the enemy).

In a lament like Ps 51, it is the psalmist who has done something wrong and has experienced the “crush” (v 8b) of guilt and the pain of God’s disappointment (v 4b), and the request is for God’s “mercy” and forgiveness (v 1).  This psalm follows the usual pattern for an “Individual Lament”2:  Address to God (v 1); Complaint/Confession (vv 3-5)3; Confession of Trust (v 6); Petition (vv 7-11); Words of Assurance (v 12); and Vow of Praise (vv 13-15).  The only exception is the occurrence of a Petition in vv 1b-2.  It is not unusual for laments to rearrange the different parts of the structure, and we might explain this aberration as being due to the effusive emotions of a person who is desperate for God’s forgiveness.

2 Sam 11:1-12:13
The “honeymoon” of King David’s reign does not last forever.  His faith and fair-mindedness falter, when he shows poor judgment and uncontrolled lust in his encounter with Bathsheba.  While the men of his military are out on the battlefields, the king remains at home along with the women of the city, who were not allowed to go into battle.  One day, while Batsheba is innocently bathing on her rooftop, assuming that there would be no men to see her exposed, David eyes her beauty and inquires about her.  Even though he is told that Batsheba is married to one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, the king demands that she be brought to him.  Once in his chambers and under his control, Batsheba becomes a victim of David’s power and lust.  After having his way with her, David sends Batsheba home.  The secrecy of his sexual misbehavior is threatened when he learns that Bathsheba is pregnant.  With her husband away in battle, there would be no doubt that the baby was not Uriah’s.  First, David attempts to trick Uriah into sleeping with Batsheba, thus making it believable that the child would be his.  He brings Uriah back from the battlefront and encourages him to spend a night at home with his wife.  Uriah’s discipline and respect for his fellow soldiers in the field causes him to refuse this “comfort” of home.  The king then tries to get Uriah drunk enough to forget his pledge of abstinence, but this attempt at a cover-up also fails.  As a last effort, David sends Uriah back to the battlefield with a note secretly telling the king’s commander, Joab, to place Uriah on the frontlines of the fighting and then withdraw, insuring his death.  This time David gets what he wants.  With Uriah dead, he is able to marry Batsheba, after the proper mourning period, and his misdeed will never be revealed.  But, the LORD is not so easily fooled.  Nathan is sent with a divine prophecy for the David, revealing that the punishment for his sinful behavior will be that the child borne by Batsheba will not survive.  Even though David repents, the child becomes ill and dies.  Quickly, David impregnates Batsheba a second time, and she bears a healthy baby boy, who is named Solomon and will succeed his father on the throne.

Ephesians 4:1-16
A modern question to bring to this text would be:  “What is the Church’s ‘body image’ today?”  Does your congregation have a healthy “body image,” or is it concerned about weight, height, muscle, or balance?  Is your congregation trying to “woo” families, young adults, or youth into membership with programs, buildings, and more activities than are offered at the local mall or YMCA?  Is your congregation taking its cues about its “image” from congregations that look successful from outward appearances, but seem to maintain that appearance through unhealthy practices?  The author of Ephesians borrows the “body metaphor” from the authentic writings of Paul to beg the Christian community in the Roman controlled city to a life, a witness, worthy of being named “Christian” by those within and outside of Christianity.

Another question to bring to the text is, “Does mature faith mean unity through uniformity?”  Historically, it seems that the best we can muster as Christian communities, or as a secular society, is “separate, but equal,” which we know sets-up a power struggle over who has the power to define “separate and equality.”  Could mature faith mean tolerance of persistent differences, or distinctions, among groups of Christians?  In our current political context, and in many religious ones, the answer is “no.”  Tolerance, collaboration, and compromise indicate weakness in our politics and in positions of leadership.

John 6:24-35
This entire month will be spent in John 6.  Some weeks, you may be able to translate the text for the children, and other weeks, like this one, the text will be challenging for new and seasoned believers.  Concrete thinkers will have difficulty sifting the metaphor.  Have you ever made bread?  Over the next several weeks, the Gospel of John is kneading Jesus into the “bread of life.”13  Remember, this gospel is an overt treatise on the topic of “who is Jesus,” and it is expounding on the Christology of the developing Christian community, which is the author’s context and is probably predominately Gentile.  Here, familiarity with the text and a comfort with the self-revelation of Jesus, that the gospel writer places on Jesus‘ lips, may keep us from discovering what else this passage has to teach, beyond tradition’s orthodoxy about the divinity of Jesus, his calculated purpose, and the character of God.   The Lectionary omits two verses, vv. 22-23, that set the stage for the conversation between Jesus and “the crowds,”14 who awake the next morning, after being well fed the night before, and neither Jesus nor the disciples can be found.  What would you do in this situation?  If you are food insecure, you might go looking for the person that just fed your family.  For those who celebrate communion every Sunday, we go back to our “normal” life and come back next week, knowing that the table, if not Jesus, will be there.